Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
This is the 13th article in a series focusing on the fact that Autism is a social issue that could have been, and should have been, solved a long time ago.
I’d heard about ” the backstabbing” among Autism Leaders. I’d even seen a few examples, and I wrote about them, creating, with Jake Crosby, a huge argument in the Autism world.
It was like I set off a bomb.
Mind Boggling…
I wrote a whole series, you’ll find in the column on the right, about why Autism is still with us – and I wasn’t blaming Big Pharma, or the CDC. I was pointing right at the so-called organized autism community – pointing out the obvious. I said, in an earlier article:
This is the fourth article in a series focusing on the fact that Autism is a social issue that could have been, and should have been, solved a long time ago. Like the first three, it focuses on the mechanism, or in this case, the lack of mechanism.
There are simple ways to organize problems for solution. Everybody uses them. Businesses can’t survive without them. Even government agencies use them. Advocate organizations employ them. Yet, for a myriad of reasons, the Autism Community cannot sit down and organize a campaign to solve their problems.
They cannot sit there and make a list of their problems, then discuss possible solutions. They cannot take those possible solutions and make plans. Consequently, they cannot execute any plans. And, finally, they cannot review the situation because they didn’t even start any process.
Instead, as the AutismOne meeting in Chicago a few weeks ago shows us, they get together, pose, position, preen, and posture, for what few parents of Autistic children show up for the event – and VERY FEW are showing up these days. The attendance is dismal – less than fifteen hundred people including the posers, preeners and posturers.
Then, to close the event, in front of those same Autism parents, they get falling down drunk at a Karaoke night, leaving, as you might expect, a solid impression with those parents of what the Autism Community leadership REALLY has to offer.
Nothing.
For, although there were appearances at AutismOne by Congressman, former Congressman, Bobbie Kennedy Jr, etc., NOTHING of any value occurred.
Nothing.
Now I’ll tell you what really happened there, and you won’t like what I have to say. For it isn’t the government, the vaccine industry, Brian Deer, stupid media, the NVIC program, or the skeptics, that are responsible for Autism anymore. It is the Autism Community itself, as a group, that WILL NOT ORGANIZE. Will not analyze. Will not look at possibilities. Will not plan, Will not do any constructive project.
For it is not about WHAT. It is only about WHO. Autism leadership, right now, is ONLY about WHO gets to go to a meeting with a government agency. WHO gets to introduce a Congressman at a panel. WHO gets to write articles for Age of Autism (AoA).
And that’s not working.
Then I walked away. There are times when that’s exactly what one needs to do. And I didn’t even watch what happened next.
And, a lot happened. Apparently what I said resonated.
There is a disturbance in the fabric…
For sure, things changed at AutismOne this year. There was no “Ken and Barbie Show” (Mark Blaxill and Jennifer Larson) for certain. In fact, I’m told, none of those people were even invited.
Generation Rescue wasn’t there in the form of Jenny McCarthy either, smoking an E-cigarette, or not. No one seemed to care. McCarthy, I’m told, has come out, recently, in favor of vaccines.
Generation Rescue, I suspect, is dead in the water. For as long as I can remember it has been not an Autism issue proponent, but just a promoter of Jenny McCarthy. Bye, bye Jenny…
Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) seems to be totally dead also. They do have coffee gatherings here and there, but each of them has the ring of promotion of expensive therapies and therapists. Yeah, every family with an autistic child needs a $25,054.54 Hyperbaric Chamber for their living room, right? With that you can outfit it with Hyperbaric Blankets ($250.37), Contoured mattress ($300), a chamber frame for the hyperbaric chamber ($300), and, of course, a set of hyperbaric sheets and pillowcases ($414.75).
Oh yeah, the hyperbaric people weren’t invited back to AutismOne either, I guess. Thank you AutismOne for doing that. You saved me the effort.
The best news, though, was the demise of the Canary Party. They turned out not to be the Big Bird they hoped to be. I had been asked by an Autism Activist from Florida to give them a chance to get another Autism hearing together in front of the US Congress Oversight and Government Reform Committee – and that effort turned out to be a hoot – talk about inadequate to the task. One, two, three strikes you’re out. However, after their raging success in the autism world (snort) you will be pleased to know that they are re-forming as the “American Citizens For Health Choice (ACHC)” and have applied for a voting membership in the National Health Freedom Coalition (snort again). I guess they want to bring us, in the Health Freedom Movement, their expertise (sarcasm intended).
The big disappointment, of course, was Age of Autism. They decided to personally boycott AutismOne. Of course, all one has to do there is to ask the simple question “Who writes the checks?” and all will be revealed. I hate to say this, but I expected much more from Age of Autism, but they, I think, are designed to be a diversion from the real issues – like the US late night TV news. They give jackasses like Orac a stage, and make what he says the issue, instead of leading the autism movement towards active solutions. They have a constant group that, in fact, to me, just write for each other, and ignore the public, and the real autism issues. They have no idea how to find solutions. They just whine. And, of course, they exclude, and because of that they now have Jake Crosby biting their ass every day – and doing very well at it.
Let’s Look at the Good Parts…
Take a look at the AutismOne Speaker Schedule to see the star line-up that was there. Then look at the Sponsors and the Exhibitors.
AutismOne made a quantum leap, I think, on the road to solving the autism problem.
They threw out the trash.
Stay tuned.
Tim Bolen – Consumer Advocate
– See more at: https://bolenreport.com/autism/autism%20infighting13.htm#sthash.5sR78VRl.dpuf